Part 15 (1/2)

'We sabotage the barrier between this segment and the next. They're bound to send out a repair team. With luck, we can hijack whatever vehicle they have.'

She opened her eyes and gazed at him in wonderment.

'Never say die?'

He grinned. 'Never say die.'

She led the way down the nearest vine towards the ground. There was a heart-stopping moment halfway down when a moss-covered creature with a mouthful of needle-like teeth slid from a hole in the tree-trunk as she was pa.s.sing by, but it ignored her and moved off up the tree.

'Can I breathe now?' she whispered.

'I told you the leaves would work,' he hissed back.

She shook her head. He was always so irritatingly sure of himself 'You remember that restaurant on Feiss Haven?' she hissed.

'Yes. What about it.'

'You told me that the spiny hairb.a.l.l.s in sour blood sauce were perfectly edible. I spent three days trying to bring up everything that I had ever eaten.'

There was silence for a few moments.

'I think the sauce may have been slightly undercooked,' he admitted finally.

It took ten minutes to get down to the ground. Bernice stood there for a moment, regaining her equilibrium. A dartlike predator flickered past her ear.

'How did you know about the leaves?' she said as the Doctor dropped lightly to the ground beside her.

'Experience,' he said. 'I've spent several lifetimes escaping through forests.

I've learned all the tricks.'

'All of them?'

'Well, most of them.' He walked off 'Some of them, at least,' he added.

Bernice shrugged, looked around, and followed.

His voice came floating back over his shoulder.

'All right then, one or two.'

It took them half an hour of mind-numbing, bone-wearying slog to get to the next segment of Purgatory. By the time they pushed their way past the last fleshy purple leaf and found themselves in a defoliated zone some hundred metres wide, Bernice was soaked in condensation, perspiration and the foul-smelling sap of various types of leaf So tired was she that the sight before her failed to register for at least a minute. When it did, she suddenly forgot everything.93.

The defoliated zone ended in a straight line which continued in either direction for as far as she could see. Past the line, the translucent blue ground shone with reflected light. Deep within it, Bernice could just make out a web-work of curling white lines. Mountains rose in the distance: jagged mon-strosities that loomed over the barren landscape like a whole collection of Gothic castles. The sky was a greenish-black in colour, and the stars showed up as tiny haloed points of light.

'The acid ice-cap of Throssa?' she asked, awed.

The Doctor nodded. 'Well,' he said, 'it's not the ruined emerald cities of Dargol, that's for sure.'

'How do you know?'

'Who do you think ruined them?'

She looked sideways at him, only to find that he was smiling. 'You didn't didn't?'

'No, I didn't,' he said.

'Good.'

'But I know the man who did.'

'Sometimes I don't know whether you're serious or not,' she confided.

'Sometimes,' he admitted, 'neither do I.'

A flurry of activity within the ice attracted their attention.

'The acid fish?'

He nodded. 'The acid fish.'

A shoal of thin, flexible creatures was moving rapidly through the hard ground: wheeling, rising and diving almost as one. They left white lines behind them, like the contour trails of jets. Bernice realized with a slight shock that the lines were the tunnels left in the ice after the creatures had pa.s.sed.

'And you want us to go in there?' she said.

'No.' The Doctor picked up a branch and threw it towards the line where the ice started. The branch never made it: rebounding instead from an invisible barrier and landing a few feet away from the Doctor.

'Force wall,' he said. 'If we can find a way of deactivating it, we'll attract quite a bit of fuss.'

'You've created quite enough fuss already,' a voice growled behind them.

Bernice turned, already knowing what she would find.

The four remaining Landsknechte stood behind them, guns raised. They didn't look pleased.94.

Chapter 7.

'I'm Evan Claple and this is The Empire Today The Empire Today , on the spot, on and , on the spot, on and off the Earth. Today's headlines: controversy as the Rim World Alliance applies to leave the Empire. In a statement last night, Viscount Henson Farlander, aide-in-chief to the Empress, said that n.o.body leaves the Empire. An Imperial Landsknecht flotilla is already off the Earth. Today's headlines: controversy as the Rim World Alliance applies to leave the Empire. In a statement last night, Viscount Henson Farlander, aide-in-chief to the Empress, said that n.o.body leaves the Empire. An Imperial Landsknecht flotilla is already reported to be heading for the Rim. Also in the news today: the reported to be heading for the Rim. Also in the news today: the Tyled amba.s.sador is murdered during an official reception at the Imperial Palace in orbit around Saturn, and fresh outbreaks of fighting Tyled amba.s.sador is murdered during an official reception at the Imperial Palace in orbit around Saturn, and fresh outbreaks of fighting on Allis Five, Heaven, Murtaugh and Riggs Alpha. Details after the on Allis Five, Heaven, Murtaugh and Riggs Alpha. Details after the break . . . ' break . . . '

'So,' Cwej said with an unconvincing display of casualness, 'what's all this about hating the Falardi, then?'

They were standing at the end of the Goreki shuttle ramp, surrounded by Imperial Landsknechte whose weapons were, if not exactly trained on them, not exactly pointed harmlessly at the ground either. The shuttle itself sat forlornly upon Purgatory's plasticrete landing surface, dwarfed by the Landsknechte s.h.i.+ps around it. Its captain glared balefully at them from the c.o.c.kpit.

Being a Gorekian, and having that race's characteristic three glowing eyes, he could glare balefully better than almost anybody Forrester had ever met. He also had good reason. His s.h.i.+p was primarily a supply vessel on a short milk run. He hadn't banked on having two extra pa.s.sengers, and certainly hadn't banked on being held up pending a refusal of entry.

As soon as they had landed the Adjudicators had asked to see the local security officer. The shuttle's captain had been denied clearance to take off until Forrester and Cwej had been dealt with, and they had keen refused permission to leave the shuttle. They had pushed things as far as they could by standing on the edge of the disembarkation ramp, staring at the troops surrounding them. The sun glared down as balefully as the captain, so they had removed their robes and stood there, the light s.h.i.+ning from their armour and into the Landsknechte's eyes.